Traveling back to Pakistan for journalism and peace

Khushal Khan Kakar is a quiet, unassuming exchange student attending Florida State University for the spring semester.

He sent an email to me after reading a recent blog about horrific events in Quetta, Baluchistan, Pakistan, where more than 90 people were killed in a double bombing. Quetta is his hometown, though he lives near the federal capital of Islamabad now.

“I was really shocked that an American knew that much about the deteriorating situation of my city,” he said in his first email. “I am pleased that there are a few people who are working for the peace and solidarity of the world and I want to praise your thoughts of thinking beyond boundaries.”

Last week, I picked up Khushal at the Center for Global Engagement at Florida State to talk further. I learned a lot about this young man in that time, enough to reconfirm for me that Pakistan and the vast majority of Pakistanis are so different than they are popularly thought of in America, a far cry from the Pakistanis depicted in the film Zero Dark Thirty, which — it must be remembered — is part journalism but a lot Hollywood.

As you read this, I’m heading back to Pakistan – almost exactly one year after my first trip – again sponsored by the International Center for Journalists through a program largely funded by the U.S. State Department and media organizations. It is a professional exchange program that sends American journalists to Pakistan and brings Pakistani journalists to the United States.

I’m taking part in a journalism summit in Islamabad and part of a panel discussing how U.S. and Pakistani journalists cover each others’ country. One of the things the summit organizers want to know is what my Tallahassee readers think of me writing about Pakistan, and about the strong relationships our news organization has developed Pakistani journalists and why my employers allow me to write about Pakistan in this era of local-local news being king.

I can speak best about why I’m involved. We have hosted four Pakistanis in Tallahassee, as regular readers of this blog know. We continue to have contact with all four. Readers have met most, either in person at community events and speaking opportunities or through this blog or through their own work that we have published.

Through them, we have been able to tell news stories about events in Pakistan with huge implications for the U.S., and we’ve been able to show a more complete story about Pakistan and its people than is available to most Americans.

I’m proud of that, and in this university and government town, we think that is important information for you to have.

One of the points I want to make at the conference is that I’m also proud of my government for helping to make this happen. Experts, such as Stephen P. Cohen, senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution, have said this program may be the most important peaceful initiative the U.S. has going in Pakistan.

I suspect it is one of the least expensive initiatives, too. It is certainly far less costly – however you define that term – than the continuing drone attacks intended to flush out terrorists, including those attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

I thought about our very real costs in Pakistan while watching the dramatic scene in Zero Dark Thirty of the helicopter crashing as Navy Seals invaded the compound in Pakistan hiding Osama bin Laden. Certainly, the ‘copter would cost far more than all the U.S. government has spent on the ICFJ Pakistan exchange program.

Khushal was happy to learn about the ICFJ. His major is engineering, but his interest is in a peaceful Pakistan.

It is thought by the ICFJ that by creating greater understanding between Pakistani and American journalists, there is the opportunity for better and more accurate reporting. Wars are created by divergent interests and misunderstandings. Peace requires hard work, common interests and mutual understanding.

The relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan has been usually somewhere in between, transactional at best. We funnel billions of dollars into Pakistan – it is one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid – and in return the Pakistani government behaves more or less as we wish — usually less.

The complaint among those inside Pakistan interested in fostering a democratic and peaceful government has been that the U.S. is a better friend when Pakistan is run as a military dictatorship than during its passes at democracy.

This is an attempt to change that; it is an attempt to build a relationship from the ground up, starting – as any successful relationship must – by getting to know each other better. It is developing a framework for a lasting friendship that gives peace a chance, between our countries and within Pakistan’s borders.

My interest began as a desire to help support the courageous journalists who are writing and broadcasting Pakistan’s history at this momentous time. It is the most dangerous nation in the world for journalists. But my interest has become far more personal now that I have gotten to know real people, seen inside their lives, in some cases gotten to know their families. And I’m not only talking about the journalists.

I have spoken with and gotten to know better many dozens of people, from factory workers to people working security to a young boy longing for a conversation with an American because his father lives in this country to schoolchildren from an Afghan camp to the rich and powerful in Pakistan.

And so, for the second straight year, I will head to Pakistan, again missing the Super Bowl – I wish I could help the ICFJ better plan these trips to avoid that great American tradition. Clearly, there is work to do on this “greater understanding” thing.

As I go back, I know the answer to the question of why: I’m firm in my belief that pens and paper — even tablets and computers — are cheaper and more valuable all at once than guns and bullets. I’m confident that this is an issue Tallahassee cares about. And for all the soldiers who have fought in Afghanistan — and their families — I’m convinced that peace is worth a try.

Note: I will blog as best as I can while in Pakistan, and report back to you more fully when I return.

You can send comments by clicking on Bob Gabordi’s blog on Tallahassee.com, e-mailing him at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com and Twitter @bgabordi. You can also find links to his blogs on Facebook. He’s also on LinkedIn and Google+. His mailing address is Bob Gabordi, Executive Editor, Tallahassee Democrat, P.O. Box 990, Tallahassee, FL 32302. His telephone number is 850-599-2177.

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You can send comments by clicking on Bob Gabordi’s blog on Tallahassee.com or Move.Tallahassee.com, e-mailing him at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com and Twitter @bgabordi. You can also find links to his blogs on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. His mailing address is Bob Gabordi, Executive Editor, Tallahassee Democrat, P.O. Box 990, Tallahassee, FL 32302. His telephone number is 850-599-2177.